Germany

Lufthansa announced that Vereinigung Cockpit, the union representing the airline’s 5,400 pilots, will stage strikes this week on Tuesday and Wednesday, November 29 and 30. The move follows two strikes that the union staged last week, during which thousands of flights, both short-haul and long, were cancelled.
The union said that Tuesday’s strike will affect all short-haul flights from 12:01 a.m. through 11:59 p.m. local time, while Wednesday’s strike will last …

Lufthansa announced that Vereinigung Cockpit, the union representing the airline’s 5,400 pilots, will stage another strike Thursday. The strike, which will last from 12:01 a.m. until 11:59 p.m., is a continuation of a strike that will be carried out by the union on Wednesday over wage disputes.
Lufthansa said that it cancelled 912 flights, including 82 intercontinental ones, for Thursday. The carrier said that the additional cancellations will affect approximately 115,000 …

Lufthansa announced that it plans to add new destinations from Frankfurt and Munich to its summer schedule for the coming year.
From Frankfurt Airport, the carrier will offer thrice-weekly service to Santiago de Compostela, Spain, beginning March 27, 2017. This will be followed by twice-weekly service to Bordeaux, France, on April 2.
Beginning April 15, the carrier will offer flights to Heringsdorf, a German town on the Baltic Sea, and on April …

Air Canada announced that it plans to launch new service to both Frankfurt and London from Vancouver next year. The airline will offer daily seasonal flights to Frankfurt beginning June 1, and thrice weekly seasonal service to London Gatwick Airport starting June 8, 2017.
Flights to Vancouver International Airport will depart at 12:25 p.m. and arrive at Frankfurt Airport at 7:05 a.m. the next day. From Frankfurt, flights will depart at …

Lufthansa Group airlines Lufthansa, Austrian, Brussels, and Eurowings announced plans to offer new service to a variety of destinations this fall and winter.
Lufthansa will offer new flights from Frankfurt to Funchal, Portugal on October 29, as well as to Cape Town, South Africa on December 2. On October 30, the carrier will begin service from Munich to Marrakesh, Morocco.
Austrian Airlines plans to launch new service to Havana, Cuba from Vienna …

MUNICH—The 183rd Oktoberfest, which kicked off with the declaration “O’zapft is” (it’s tapped) and a 12-gun salute on September 17 amidst heavy rain and security, is now underway.
The celebration of Bavarian culture attracts visitors from across the globe, although the majority (70%) come from the state of Bavaria itself. Indeed, Munich locals (including myself) will attend the Wies’n (the colloquial name for the Theresienwiese) multiple times in the course of …

MUNICH—By the end of 2017, it will be possible to travel from Munich to Berlin by train in four hours, according to officials at the Deutsche Bahn, Germany’s national railroad. The current trip takes six hours.
An expansion of the Intercity-Express or ICE high-speed rail line between the two cities is underway near Thüringer Forest and the result will be a much faster trip between the two prominent German cities.
The 66-mile …

It was love at first sight and the most unexpected encounter I’ve ever had at a hotel. Sally, a Chihuahua mix, was living large in the reception area of the Westin Mission Hills Golf Resort and Spa, looking for a guest to adopt as part of the hotel’s pet adoption program.
Sally let me take her for a walk around the property’s beautiful grounds and it was clear that we enjoyed …

Pan Am, the nation’s unofficial flag carrier and a cultural icon, ceased operations on Wednesday (December 4) after what could only be described as a tumultuous decade both for both the airline and the airline industry. It is the second major U.S. airline to cease operations this year.
Had Frequent Business Traveler existed in 1991, some 25 years ago, that could have been the lead paragraph of the top news story …